Is writing for others okay?

I recently formed a death metal band with a couple of friends of mine and we're just a trio. For our first song, it was just me and the guitarist and when we were writing it we would both just play a riff and be like, "What do you think of that?" until we made one we both liked. However, how this turned out is that he didn't like most of my riffs and I was willing to "settle" for most of his riffs so this first song is mostly his riffs, which I'm fine with. He generally isn't the best at guitar and it seems he has a hard time keeping up sometimes but I let it go and figure he'll get it down eventually.

The problem came in today where he wasn't able to make it to a practice and so me and the drummer worked on a new song together. We got part of the song done and agreed to both go home and practice it. So I get home and start putting it in Tabit so the guitarist can learn it easier. I wrote my part out in Tabit but then I started putting in new guitar parts that I decided would sound good with what I was playing. These parts, however, (including the parts that just follow the bass) are much more technical than anything he normally plays and it concerns me.

So the question is, is there something wrong with writing his part for him? And, should we let him come up with something easier that he won't have to practice as much if he decides that what I came up with "sucks".

For how can I give the King his place of worth above all else when I spend my time striving to place the crown upon myself?

I usually write all parts by myself (so does our guitarist, I play bass in our band). You can always change the parts if you think they would fit the song better. But I usually follow the bassline the guitarist has made (and if I write a guitar riff, he plays it). If it sounds good, who cares who has written it? I have tweaked some of our guitarist's song and he has liked it. But I think it's better to write all the parts by yourself and see how they sound together. Then if somebody has some better ideas, use them. You can always tweak your songs.

It's a good thing to have an idea how the song will sound like. And not like "I have a bass riff, you need to write a guitar riff over it." You can write both guitar and bass riff by yourself. Because usually the guy who starts writing the song has some kind of picture of how it will sound like.

Well, when I write a song, I usually write the guitar and bass parts for them (I'm a guitarist) since I usually have an idea of what will sound like when I'm finished. If I show the song to a bassist or second guitarist, they can adjust their parts to taste, but it shouldn't be too drastic.

Besides, if someone wrote a song with a guitar part, I'd be more than willing to try it out and seem how it goes. If it feels a bit weird or I think some tiny little thing needs to be changed, than I'll go along with it.

Quote by derek8520

He won't get any better if he doesn't challenge himself with more difficult stuff.

Yeah, I agree with this. I find it a bit odd though that the guitarist, as described by the TS, has trouble keeping up most of the time. It doesn't make much sense to me since he's in a death metal band, so I thought he'd be used to play some pretty technical stuff.

Learning how to take direction and play things that aren't your favorite is part of being a mature musician. There's really no sense in getting territorial about a part when he doesn't have an alternate version ready to to. I'd just tell that whenever he writes something for the part he can try it out, and that you are equally willing to play parts he writes on his own time for you.

Seriously, if your bandmates aren't cooperative or willing to put in the effort, maybe you'd be better off ditching them. Then again, if you're willing to make the compromise yourself, maybe it'll work out.

Only play what you hear. If you don’t hear anything, don’t play anything.-Chick Corea

I couldn't really kick him out and then find another guitarist because both he and the drummer go to my church and we're all good friends. I think I'd have to get an entirely new band and I'm not really up to that.

For how can I give the King his place of worth above all else when I spend my time striving to place the crown upon myself?

Being in a band because you don't want to find another band makes no sense, just sayin'. It's also possible (sometimes, this can get tricky) to be friends and not be in the band together anymore.

I'd say that unless you had a specific musical idea, to let him jam his own riffs over what you're playing. If it sounds like crap, then find a new guitarist or find a new band, because he obviously isn't ready to be in any band, or he doesn't fit in your band (maybe he just has a different style that would work with someone else). I think the key is 'he has a hard time keeping up'. If he can't keep up, he needs to go home and practice on his own or with a slower band until he can keep up.

I couldn't really kick him out and then find another guitarist because both he and the drummer go to my church and we're all good friends. I think I'd have to get an entirely new band and I'm not really up to that.

It sounds like he'll have to get better or you compromise some of the parts that are written. You may be able to, if at all possible, take the guitar parts you have written and try to find easier fingerings of them for him.

Writing almost entire songs for a band is no problem at all. Many bands do this where different members may write full songs and get them put on albums, or they'll all collaborate. A big indicator on whether or not one, multiple, or all band members write a song is how musically inspired they are.

I would also like to ask; What bands do you and the guitarist listen to that are Death Metal and "-Core"?